Sango (African Lion) limited edition print

I met Sango at the Denver Zoo on a sunny late November day in 2015. As luck would have it, it was also the very first day that Sango’s two young cubs would be out for us to see. “Out” meant a smallish open-air anteroom with a wall of plexiglass separating us (vs the zoo’s large savanna habitat where they would sit far away).

Sango lounged on a heated rock nearest the glass – aka between us and his family. The father’s role. Behind him were mama and an auntie. I didn’t know which was which. And playing, mostly out-of-sight, were his two cubs. I only had eyes for Sango.

He was handsome. To me, he seemed the proudest of papas. He looked me dead in the eye several times and held my gaze. Months later the zoo told me that he had been a somewhat shy lion until he became a father, and that he blossomed into that role.

Sadly, Sango had a short life, dying even before his portrait was dry. He had severe defects in his liver and gall bladder that suddenly showed up that next spring. Everyone hopes it is not a problem that could be passed on to his cubs.

This print is a crop of the 48×48 original oil portrait. I wanted to be able to present Sango larger on the page.

These luscious richly-colored giclée prints are from a limited edition of 250, professionally printed to order, and signed and numbered by the artist. Only a small portion of the artist’s paintings are available as prints.

     LARGE: 20″ x 20″  on 22″ x 22″ Hahnemühle Photo Rag (308 gsm)

     SMALL: 14″ x 14″ on 16″ x 16″ Hahnemühle Photo Rag (308 gsm)

Printed with Epson Ultrachrome inks using an Epson StylusPro 9600